Tench Coxe

Tench Coxe and the Right to Keep and Bear Arms

by TJ Martinell | Aug 10, 2022 | 2nd Amendment, Tench Coxe

Tench Coxe isn’t well-known today, but he was an influential figure in the founding era. Coxe advocated for the new Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and he wrote extensively about the right to keep and bear arms. In their paper Tench Coxe And The Right To Keep...

“Necessary” Is Not a Constitutional Argument

by Mike Maharrey | May 26, 2020 | Constitution, Tench Coxe

I hear a lot of bad constitutional arguments justifying this or that federal action. One common justification for expanding federal power is: “This thing is necessary! It needs to be done.” But it doesn’t follow that the federal government has to do...

How our Constitution was supposed to work: new evidence comes to light

by Rob Natelson | Sep 16, 2019 | Constitution, Federalism, Founding Principles, Tench Coxe

Judging by the promises of presidential candidates, you might think the federal government is designed to fix whatever ails us: health care, education, crime, infrastructure, the common cold. But the Constitution doesn’t grant the federal government such unlimited...

The founder who told Americans we have a right to military weapons

by Rob Natelson | Apr 30, 2019 | 2nd Amendment, Tench Coxe

Does the Constitution’s right to keep and bear arms apply to everyone? Or only to law enforcement and the National Guard? Does the right include so-called “assault weapons?” A newly published document from America’s founding offers a clue. When interpreting the...

The meaning of “militia” in the Second Amendment

by Rob Natelson | Apr 6, 2019 | 2nd Amendment, Ratification Debates, Tench Coxe

This is the second article examining contributions to our understanding of the Constitution from the three brand new volumes of the Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution of the United States. My first article observed that probably the greatest...

More evidence the feds are exceeding their powers

by Rob Natelson | Apr 2, 2019 | Constitution, Ratification Debates, Tench Coxe

Scholars working on the Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution are approaching the end of the project they began in the 1970s, yet they continue to publish new material. They have just issued three new volumes of ratification-era papers from...

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The 10th Amendment

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

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